Britain gallery: Gold Hill

Gold Hill, in Dorset's Shaftesbury, must be one of the country's most-photographed spots

after the highlights of London. This very steep cobbled hill, lined with old cottages, leads from

the centre of Shaftesbury to outlying villages on the roads to Dorchester or Blandford Forum.

Mention Gold Hill to people of a certain age and they will fondly remember the Hovis bread ad

that was filmed here, set to a brass-band version of the slow movement from Dvořák's New

World Symphony. Because my best friend, Al, from Salisbury Art College, came from

Shaftesbury (and who now lives on the side of another hill, in Tuscany), I was a

semi-frequent visitor to his home town. On one occasion, we'd tried to get my old British

motorbike up the hill from the bottom end, and signally failed to get more than a few yards

up. How the folks who live here don't expire from exhaustion, I don't know. Perhaps they do,

as there never seemed to be many people on the hill when I was there.

This picture was from cobble level and was taken in broad daylight, more as a memo than

anything else, but tweaking it to give it a sunset look has made it into a more attractive

picture.

Gold Hill, in Dorset's Shaftesbury, must be one of the country's most-photographed spots after

the highlights of London. This very steep cobbled hill, lined with old cottages, leads from the

centre of Shaftesbury to outlying villages on the roads to Dorchester or Blandford Forum.

Mention Gold Hill to people of a certain age and they will fondly remember the Hovis bread ad that

was filmed here, set to a brass-band version of the slow movement from Dvořák's New World

Symphony. Because my best friend, Al, from Salisbury Art College, came from Shaftesbury (and

who now lives on the side of another hill, in Tuscany), I was a semi-frequent visitor to his home

town. On one occasion, we'd tried to get my old British motorbike up the hill from the bottom

end, and signally failed to get more than a few yards up. How the folks who live here don't expire

from exhaustion, I don't know. Perhaps they do, as there never seemed to be many people on

the hill when I was there.

This picture was from cobble level and was taken in broad daylight, more as a memo than

anything else, but tweaking it to give it a sunset look has made it into a more attractive picture.